The Financial Supervisory Authority Launches the STEAM Project, the Capital Market Reform to Obtain the Status of Emerging Market

13 August 2014

The FSA Board approved the STEAM project – Action Plan to Obtain the Status of Emerging Market. STEAM is a vigorous and firm reform program of the Romanian capital market with regard to its size, liquidity and accessibility by investors and will result in economic development.

The aim of the STEAM Project(Set of actions Towards Establishing and Acknowledgment of the emerging Market status) is to enforce a set of strategic measures to reclassify the Romanian capital market as an “emerging market” (rather than its current status as “frontier market”), within maximum 2 years from the onset of the programme.

The typology of the markets is established by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), which classifies international capital markets into the following categories: frontier market, emerging market and developed market. This typology is considered by investors by limiting exposure depending on the type of capital market and is an important factor in the investment decision-making process.

Based on the MSCI report and the World Bank report prepared in May 2014 (World Bank Group Romania Capital Market Initial Diagnostic), the Financial Supervisory Authority prepared the STEAM measures plan.

“The STEAM project is the priority strategic objective identified and assumed by FSA for the capital market. It is consistent with the need to open the market, to streamline and facilitate access to invest in Romania and will result in an increase of the volume of investments and liquidity. Our goal is to be proactive with respect to markets and to facilitate the advancement of the capital market to a new strategic dimension. STEAM, as suggested by the acronym, shows that FSA is committed vigorously, strongly, firmly and enthusiastically to obtaining the status of emerging market for the Romanian capital market”, declared Mr. Mișu Negrițoiu, President of FSA.

The set of measures proposed by STEAM includes:

increasing the accessibility and attractiveness of the Romanian capital market;

streamlining and fluidizing the financial instrument lending operations and short selling transactions;

developing the local primary and secondary bond markets (municipal and corporate);

increasing the liquidity and attracting new investors;

increasing the visibility of Romanian undertakings listed on the capital market by the possibility to be listed on other markets as well;

increasing the implementation level of the corporate governance principles at the level of issuers, intermediaries, market operators, depositories, etc.;

improving the accounting system of the entities regulated and supervised by FSE by aligning it with the IFRS standards

We attach to this press release the action plan and the deadlines for achieving the objectives in the STEAM project